The London borough of Hackney excels at parks, pubs, parties and pastry. In recent years bakeries have become essential third places and viral sensations across London, and Hackney is home to a high concentration of the capital’s best, turning out doorstopper sourdough loaves, buttery viennoiserie and fine patisserie. Plot a bakery crawl from Dalston and Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick and Victoria Park: these are the best bakeries in Hackney.
E5 Bakehouse, London Fields
Confusingly located in E8 rather than E5 (the Clapton postcode where founder Ben Mackinnon conducted his first sourdough experiments), this Hackney institution marked 15 years under the arches at Mentmore Terrace, just off London Fields, in 2025. The bakery grows its own heritage grains on a regenerative organic farm in Suffolk. It’s stone-ground into flour in the Hackney cafe, then baked into its signature Hackney Wild sourdough loaves. In front of shelves of bread, buns and croissants, a glass counter holds a regular line-up of sweeter treats. The spelt apple cake with olive oil, chocolate rye cookie and crisp-cornered seasonal fruit financier are unmissable classics.
The Dusty Knuckle, Dalston
The founders of The Dusty Knuckle include a youth worker and an ex-Moro chef, and it pairs its social calling – offering training and employment to disadvantaged young people – with some of London’s greatest bread and pastries. Over the past decade it has graduated from a shipping container into a full-blown cafe in the yard of Dalston’s Bootstrap building, plus a wholesale operation supplying bread for Ottolenghi, Jamie Oliver and Granger & Co, among others. Get there before lunchtime (even earlier on weekends) to ensure you don’t miss out on ordering the feta, sesame and honey pastry, and a potato sourdough to take home.
Pophams, Victoria Park
In April 2026, Pophams was forced to temporarily close its London Fields location due to a dispute with its landlord. The site was the main production site for the bakery’s flaky, buttery twists, swirls and buns, which draw queues every weekend. Production has since relocated to Homerton. While the London Fields cafe remains closed, there’s a tiny takeaway at the Pophams Home store next door, and its cosy Victoria Park cafe – which has a dozen indoor seats and terrace facing the morning sun – continues to furnish hungry Hackneyites with generously sized maple and bacon spirals.
Violet Cakes, London Fields
After three years as a pastry chef at legendary Bay Area restaurant Chez Panisse, Claire Ptak moved to London in 2005, and established Violet as a Broadway Market stall. A few years later, Ptak’s permanent bakery-cafe opened on Wilton Way, bringing a dose of breezy Californian minimalism. Bakes include soft, thickly frosted cupcakes, rich banana bread and sprinkle-dotted “California” cookies; weekend specials may include half-glazed madeleines. Violet has seduced everyone from locals to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who commissioned Ptak to create their lemon-and-elderflower wedding cake.
Forno, London Fields
Opened in a canalside railway arch by Mitshel Ibrahim, chef-patron of nearby Ombra (which closed in June 2026), Forno injects Italian flair into the east London bakery scene. Its signatures are the cornetto – the croissant’s pillowy Italian cousin, stuffed with plain or pistachio crema – and the maritozzo, a Roman brioche bun sliced open and filled generously with whipped cream. Every Friday night, the archway turns into Brillo, bringing in an hi-fi system and flipping from pastries and flat whites to pizza, natural wine and disco beats.
Luminary Bakery, Stoke Newington
Luminary is a Hackney bakery with a mission: giving women who’ve experienced homelessness, abuse or exploitation a chance to rebuild their lives through training, employment and community. The window displays beautifully iced cakes, “Benjamina” traybakes (co-created with Bake Off alum Benjamina Ebuehi) and stacks of sourdough, brownies and viennoiserie. There are a few tables inside the checkerboard-tiled cafe, and one or two on the street outside. The urban oasis of Butterfield Green is just around the corner, and perfect for a picnic.
Fink’s, Stoke Newington and Clapton
Although it originated just over the Islington border, Fink’s has staged a Hackney takeover in recent years. Founders Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone opened an outpost on Clapton’s Chatsworth Road in 2022, followed by two outlets in Clissold Park: first a tiny takeaway in a former pumphouse, and then a colourful sit-down cafe in the Grade II-listed Clissold House. Baking happens in-house under head pastry chef Adriann Ramirez and bread specialist Adam Morley. Fresh sourdough and pastries are baked with Wildfarmed flour and delivered to all their sites daily by bike from Blackstock Road. The Clissold House cafe has an especially extensive savoury selection: grab a honey ham, comté and caraway turnover to fuel a stroll around the park.
Hearth, Hackney Wick
Hearth is tucked away at the back of a post-industrial yard full of creative and nightlife businesses. Founded in 2022 by chef and baker Maisie Collins, it’s a social enterprise devoted to “circular baking”: ingredients are all sourced from within a 50-mile radius of London, and it goes to great lengths to minimise waste. Yesterday’s bread might become today’s miso, kvass or breadcrumbs in a cheesecake base. The cinnamon brioche buns are unbeatable.
